Methods of extraction of the symmetry energy (or enthalpy) coefficient to temperature ratio from isobaric and isotopic yields of fragments produced in Fermi-energy heavy-ion collisions are discussed. We show that the methods are consistent when the hot fragmenting source is well characterized and its excitation energy and isotopic composition are properly taken into account. The results are independent of the mass number of the detected fragments, which suggests that their fate is decided very early in the reaction.

A new thermometer based on fragment momentum fluctuations is presented. This thermometer exhibited residual contamination from the collective motion of the fragments along the beam axis. For this reason, the transverse direction has been explored. Additionally, a mass dependence was observed for this thermometer. This mass dependence may be the result of the Fermi momentum of nucleons or the different properties of the fragments (binding energy, spin etc..) which might be more sensitive to different densities and temperatures of the exploding fragments. We expect some of these aspects to be smaller for protons (and/or neutrons); consequently, the proton transverse momentum fluctuations were used to investigate the temperature dependence of the source.

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The transverse flow and relative mid-rapidity yield of isotopically identified light charged particles (LCPs) Ni systems. A large enhancement of the mid-rapidity yield of the LCPs was observed relative to the yield near the projectile rapidity. In particular, this enhancement was increased for the more neutron-rich LCPs demonstrating a preference for the production of neutron-rich fragments in the mid-rapidity region. Additionally, the transverse flow of the LCPs was extracted which provides insight into the average movement of the particles in the mid-rapidity region. Isotopic and isobaric effects were observed in the transverse flow of the fragments. In both cases, the transverse flow was shown to decrease with an increasing neutron content in the fragments. A clear inverse relationship between the transverse flow and relative mid-rapidity yield is shown. The increased relative mid-rapidity emission produces a decreased transverse flow. The Stochastic Mean-Field model was used for comparison to the experimental data. The results showed that the model was able to reproduce the general isotopic and isobaric trends for the mid-rapidity emission and transverse flow. The sensitivity of these observables to the density dependence of the symmetry energy was explored. The results indicate that the transverse flow and mid-rapidity emission of the LCPs are sensitive to the denisty dependence of the symmetry energy.

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